A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy scratched at his arm as he waited for Ruby to return. He was seated on the outer patio of a small eatery. The place had a no shoes, no shirt, no service rule. But Shaggy convinced them to let him hang around. The fact that the place was damn near deserted probably helped, too. It was three blocks away from Shaggy’s neighborhood, but it still suffered from the HLO’s interference.

He ignored the glares and stares of people passing by his table. Either they were looking at his stacked table or his naked torso. Either way, both would be fixed soon. Shaggy tore into a sandwich, barely tasting it as he hurriedly chewed and swallowed. The Pod’s nutrient solution wouldn’t let him actually starve to death in the game. Even so, being hungry for so long wasn’t pleasant.

Shaggy scratched his arm again as he tossed a few rolls into his mouth. He wanted to scream at the uncomfortable feeling where they had injected him. Unfortunately, the tracker the angels had placed in him wasn’t a physical device. More of a gel that had wormed its way into his system. Supposedly, the angels could track his ass across Texas if they needed to. He forcibly stopped himself from scratching the injection site and tried to focus back on his food.

Ever since he first sat down, his inner wolf had gone nuts with hunger. Making him devour everything put in front of him. Shaggy had initially agreed with the beast. Going so long without food was annoying, mostly because of how it fueled his regeneration. But now it was almost like a macabre display of gastronomic prowess. People and staff walked by with faces of equal parts horror and fascination.

Shaggy, himself, wondered how long he had been at it. Ruby had left almost as soon as he sat down. But the precocious player wasn’t back yet. How hard was it to find one deli in a sea of broken down shops and abandoned buildings? He had even sent a mental call to his pack, but still nothing.

Shaggy swallowed whatever was in his mouth. He wasn’t even sure what he was eating anymore. He so wanted to just rush back to the deli and tell everyone what had happened. But with him being tracked by a race of angels, it was better not to. More so when he thought about the HLO. He didn’t for one second believe that they were done with him. Which suited him just fine. He wasn’t done with them either.

“Excuse me,” a silky voice said from next to him.

Shaggy didn’t even look as he rested his arm on the waist-high iron fence surrounding the eatery’s patio. “No, this isn’t a publicity stunt. Yes, I am really that hungry. No, you can’t take pictures, and yes, I am threatening you if you do.”

A sharp and sudden blow smacked him in the head and Shaggy spun in his chair. Looking up at his assailant, Shaggy stared into purple narrowed eyes bracketed by purple hair against onyx-colored skin. Levy wasn’t smiling beneath her wide-brimmed hat and her slim arm was drawn back, ready to slap him again.

Sudden feelings of mirth and elation filled him as he noticed his pack across the street. Rita and Ephemara were struggling not to laugh as Sybil had no such problem. She rolled across the sidewalk as Vick shook his head. Cekrass and Stanley were holding Ruby by her arms as she vainly struggled against them. Tom was standing behind them all, clearly giggling to himself.

Shaggy rubbed the back of his head as Levy gathered magic into her hand. “See, I was starving, so I-”

“Yes, your new cat-girl told us what happened.”

“Not my cat-girl.”

“That still doesn’t excuse not recognizing your wife’s beautiful voice when she is addressing you! Minus four hundred points!”

She smacked the top of his head with her power-laden hand. It struck with a lot of force, but Shaggy ignored it as he waved his pack across the street. Surprisingly, they all waited until Levy gave a nod of her head.

“Traitorous mutts, the lot of them.” Shaggy grumbled as he took a bite of something fishy.

Levy snorted. “Pfft! They were just as worried about you. It’s been over a day! You’re lucky you’re your own boss, or you’d be out of a job.”

“I wouldn’t call the deli a business.”

“I meant in the real world, you nimrod. The pod’s been in continuous use since you got captured. You're lucky we don’t have the forced log-out feature installed, or you would appear in prison.”

Shaggy coughed uncomfortably. It hadn’t even occurred to him that he’d been in the game that long. A sudden thought hit him.

“Wait. Did you stay logged in with me?”

“Huh? Of course not, some of us work for a living, y’know. Your pack told me you were okay, so I logged out to get some stuff done. I had your work requests distributed to your employees evenly.”

“Hun, I-”

“Oh shush. You do too much anyway. Why are you still taking jobs when you’re the boss, anyway?!”

“Please, let’s not have this discussion right now. Also, you left me in the pod for an extended period!”

“I cleared the lines and double-checked the nutrient solutions. We could spend a full month in immersion and not be in any trouble.”

Shaggy nodded slowly as his pack made it across the street. Ruby had given up struggling and was angrily glaring at Shaggy as they got closer. Ephemara and Rita nodded to Levy and then turned glares at him. Shaggy merely rolled his eyes and tossed another slice of meat into his maw.

“Dude! Call off your attack lizard and the pasty kid. Who is surprisingly strong for his skinny frame.”

“Thanks.” Stanley smiled down at the smaller cat-girl.

“Don’t make nice with the cat, Stan.” Sybil chuckled.

Shaggy shook his head at his pack. “Y’all can let her go. She’s the reason I’m not in the slammer. For now, at least.”

Levy was about to ask a question when the restaurant’s head chef came running out onto the patio. He glanced between Shaggy and his pack of people, then shook his head violently. He sputtered something in an alien language and then finally switched to English.

“No. You are not eating me out of house and home today. I thank you for your money. But I already need to restock several things. I am not feeding your whole family!”

Shaggy nodded slowly as he looked at his table. Food and empty plates filled the small round table, but Shaggy could still feel his wolf growl hungrily. Throwing another slice of meat into his mouth, Shaggy stood.

“That’s fair. But where do you get your meat, if I may ask?”

The chef stared at him uncomprehendingly. “Wha-? I- The Drunelofu ranchers outside of town. They don’t just have Drunelofu so they give us a great rate with bulk orders. Although getting anything these days is a pain in the ass!”

Shaggy waved Vick and Tom closer to the fence. He started handing them meat as he spoke to the chef. “Don’t I know it. Now, where would these drufalump ranchers be, exactly?”

The chef stood a little straighter as Vick and Tom ate some of the meat and passed the rest on to the pack. Levy was watching the conversation like a hawk. But Shaggy could see her mind working in the same direction as his. But something like worry danced around behind his wife’s eyes.

“Why do you want to know?” The alien chef asked.

“Ah, well, I own a deli not too far from here and was wondering where I could get some meat from. Like you said, it’s getting trickier these days.”

“YOU’RE a business owner?”

Shaggy stared down at his bare chest and feet. “Yeah, well, it’s been an off day. But as you can see, my friends and my wife are here to pick me up. So it is getting better.”

With a grunt of exasperation, the chef spun on his heel and went back inside. Before he made it through the door, he called for Shaggy to give him a minute. Shaggy grinned and turned to his pack, who were now openly scarfing up his table of food. Ruby had been released and stared at the pack with a mixture of awe and disgust. Levy, however, was biting her lip nervously.

“What’s up?” Shaggy asked.

Levy adjusted her hat idly. “The deli is in trouble. None of our paperwork has gone through and it’s being investigated by the city. Something about harboring known fugitives. I don’t know if getting meat should be our top priority right now.”

“Actually, a little time outside of the city might be just what we need.” Shaggy smiled.

Ruby finally interposed herself into the conversation, cat-ears shifting on her head. “Umm, don’t you have that tracking gel in your system? How the hell are you going to go anywhere?”

Shaggy nodded at Ruby’s words and turned a sad face to his wife. Levy sighed and waved a hand, her palm glowing purple. She passed her palm in front and down Shaggy’s body slowly as the rest of his pack devoured his food and watched. Shaggy sighed happily as he waited for his wife to finish. Once she was done, Levy seemed to look inward, deciphering whatever magical nonsense she had gleaned from him.

It took her a few seconds before she came back to herself and grinned wickedly. Shaggy felt the hairs on his neck stand on in as her eyes seemed to glow with mirth. Sighing, Shaggy turned to Ruby and said.

“Okay, something tells me this will not be fun. But while I’m doing this, can you get any information about what the hold up is with my deli’s paperwork?”

“Why the hell would I do that?” Ruby asked, genuinely confused.

“Because I bet the HLO are the ones responsible for the hold up.”

Ruby’s ears perked up and Shaggy swore he could almost hear her purr. But Ephemara suddenly jammed her way between the two. She looked peeved, even as she chewed through a meat and cheese sandwich.

“Boss! I’m the head of information gathering. Why the hell would you give it to this cat?!”

Shaggy rubbed his face. “I thought you didn’t want the job? Besides, I’m going to be heading out of the city for a bit, and I will bet my pack is not going to let me go alone, right?”

Rita grunted something in the affirmative as Ephemara seemed torn. Shaggy patted the slim women’s shoulder.

“Weren’t you training Tone for this? We can have her work with him.”

“Oh, no no no.” Ruby interrupted. “This cat works alone. You know my rates, Shaggy. Make sure the credits are deposited and I’ll get you your info. Even if it’s in the HLO’s own servers. But you and your dogs can stay out. Let mama-cat work.”

Ruby grinned as she threw a smile at Shaggy’s pack. Most of whom growled and her angrily. The cat-girl was walking away when Shaggy thought of something else.

“Hey! Where are the clothes you were supposed to bring me!?”

Shaggy looked at his pack. But most of them wouldn’t meet his eyes. Rita and Ephemara gave him sly grins, but Levy looked almost smug. She brushed nonexistent dust from her sleeves as she pulled herself to her full height. In a tone full of mock seriousness, she said.

“For your idiocy, we have decreed that you shall do the walk of shame as you are.”

Shaggy rolled his eyes. “For how long? I can’t go back to the deli. Not with this tracking gel inside me.”

“Nanites.” Levy corrected. “They were a series of microbial nanites. I can’t extract them with magic and they are shielded. But I think we can find someway to overcome that shielding. Normally, they would pass. But I figured we needed to do this the fast way.”

Shaggy sighed. “And how much is this going to hurt me?”

“It’s going to sting, Love. But I’m sure you’ve experienced worse.”

“Do we know if Boss is going to trigger some kind of alarm if he dumps the nanites?” Sybil asked.

Levy shrugged her shoulders. “We’ll deal with that when it comes. For now, we need to hurry. We’ve got meat to buy and a business to run. So let’s hop to.”

Shaggy rolled his eyes and hopped the small fence. His pack moving to make space. After some quick shuffling of personnel and a rousing game of rock, paper, scissors; It was decided that Ephemara, Rita, Stanley, and Tom were coming with them. Sybil, Vick and Cekrass would head back to the deli and play defense.

He could feel his pack’s displeasure. But Shaggy wasn’t going to be walking around in a large group of werewolves. At least not in broad daylight. After coming to an agreement, and getting directions from the restaurant owner, Shaggy and his group started walking. Levy had plans for Shaggy’s nanites, but she wasn’t sharing them just yet. He figured it was going to be burning or shocking the things out of his system. Neither of which he looked forward to.

“So…” Levy said leadingly as they walked.

“So?” Shaggy asked, confused, ignoring the stares his appearance got.

“So where did you pick up the cat-girl?”

Shaggy rolled his eyes. “The forums.”

Levy glanced at him, searching his face for a lie. When she didn’t find any, she started laughing. Shaggy ignored her as he explained the series of events that led to his temporary release. Levy snorted and giggled, but stayed quiet enough to listen. Once he was done, she had stopped laughing.

“Man, these HLO pricks are tenacious. I wonder what would happen if we torched their headquarters?”

“Mass hysteria, government action, possible corporate hit squads. I don’t think hiding in Under-Town would be enough.”

Levy nodded, clearly still imagining burning down the HLO. But suddenly she pulled to a stop. Their entire group halting in the middle of the sidewalk. Levy turned and waved a hand at the small space between two buildings. Shaggy followed her gesture and gulped.

“I fucking knew it.” Shaggy grumbled as he saw what was on the small plot of land. “This is going to fucking hurt.”